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I am new to Windows Azure and need help with deploying my Azure application, which is correctly deployed to Azure, to a local server.

My application consists of one Web Role, which contains a Silverlight client for a Silverlight application.

I installed and configured windows server appfabric on the server and the server is actually ready. But I don't know how can I deploy/publish the application.

To deploy to Azure, i created the .cspkg file using the publish option in the right click on Azure application. And then deployed the generated files to Azure using azure management portal. how can i do something like that for the local server?

David Makogon
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Asmaa Edress
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2 Answers2

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Windows Azure provides an emulator environment that runs on your development machine. You may either run a Windows Azure app in that emulator, or publish to Windows Azure. There's no option to deploy a Windows Azure application to Windows Server.

While some of the services offered are similar (such as cache), Windows Server AppFabric is not equivalent to the services provided by Windows Azure, and there's no equivalent fabric controller that runs on Windows Server.

EDIT: Adding clarification per @Asmaa's comments.

Building a private cloud is not the same as creating a local version of Windows Azure. The Private Cloud you reference is essentially a set of Windows Servers running virtual machines managed by Hyper-V, and some type of local storage. You'd be fully responsible for replication, disaster recovery, durable storage (where storage survives even with a disk crash), scaling, etc.

Windows Azure provides the abovementioned features, but only within its data centers. As @Avkash mentioned, there is a Windows Azure Appliance, but it there are only a handful in existence and they're huge (as in made for a data center).

If the objective is to run your code either locally or in Windows Azure, this can be done, but not by pushing the Windows Azure package to your Windows Servers. You'd need to build separate solutions to run your code in the two environments. You can reuse your core code if it's packaged correctly, but the notion of the Role Environment, Diagnostics, and other Windows Azure features would need to be replaced with something else.

One last thing: if you want to build a hybrid app, where some of it is deployed locally and some to Windows Azure, then there are certainly ways to bridge the two. See this article for more info.

David Makogon
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  • does this mean, i need to install all the softwares (MS Visual Studio, Microsoft Live SDK, Silverlight SDK, ...) needed for my development machine on the server and run the program using the compute and storage emulator from VS? – Asmaa Edress May 23 '12 at 05:43
  • i want to build something like a private cloud my server contains all softwares an features described in this tutorial http://blogs.technet.com/b/chrisavis/archive/2011/09/05/how-to-build-a-free-private-cloud-using-microsoft-technologies.aspx it lacks only the Deployemnt to publish it to server – Asmaa Edress May 23 '12 at 10:38
  • Edited answer to address private cloud question. Regarding install of dev environment: You install those tools wherever you'll be doing your development, whether on your laptop or on the server. The emulator is really for dev work. Also: there are differences between dev emulator and Windows Azure, both with Compute (read about differences [here](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/gg432960.aspx)) and in Storage (read about differences [here](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/gg433135.aspx)). – David Makogon May 23 '12 at 11:04
  • all these softwares are installed on my dev-machine, from which i deployed the application to azure. Now i hope that you can help me with a step by step explanation for how i can run it on the local server (without turning the server to a normal development machine). Is that possible? I mean without installing visual studio, ... – Asmaa Edress May 23 '12 at 11:21
  • do u have any tutorial for building the solution to run in Windows Server. U mean i have to restructure my application in a new solution, that only contains Web-, and Silverlight projects and without any cloud application and web roles. Am i right? – Asmaa Edress May 23 '12 at 13:12
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The bottom line is that you can not deploy Azure Application to Windows Server machines in your own data center and David added all the info needed on this context. However, I just want to add little more as you are new to Windows Azure. I can understand why you are trying to do something like this and because I have had similar conversation with other partners in past, I believe this information is useful.

The main why you couldn't do it because Windows Azure main components i.e. Compute, Storage, Networking and other value added services which are built upon main component are just not available in your machine however, there is a lot more to it.

Windows Azure Appliance is a product which can be deployed to any Data Center and currently used by Dell, eBay, Fujitsu and HP as described in this link. Windows Azure and Windows Azure Appliance are not exactly same, however, Windows Azure Appliance does have a similar model of Compute, package deployment, Storage, Management portal and functionality. So when available to general public this could be a choice for data centers to have something similar to Azure running in their premise however it is currently available to only very limited partners.

aevitas
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AvkashChauhan
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  • thanx for ur answer. but i still don't know how to run it on the local server without installing all needed softwares for a development machine on the server. all these softwares (Ms Visual studio, Azure SDK, Silverlight, Windolws Live, ... etc) are installed on my dev-machine, from which i deployed the application to azure. Now how can i run it on the local server (without turning the server to a normal development machine). Is that possible? – Asmaa Edress May 23 '12 at 11:51
  • I think you are missing Windows Azure Subscription. You just need to get your Windows Azure Subscription either free/Trial or Paid from here https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/ and start deploying as described here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/spazuretrainingcourse_introtowindowsazurelabvs2010_topic4#_Toc297905245. – AvkashChauhan May 23 '12 at 21:11
  • my application is already deployed/published on the cloud with the subscription from my company. but they want to use the application locally. on their own Windows Server and i have no idea how i can do it without truning the local server to a development machine. Any ideas? – Asmaa Edress May 23 '12 at 21:42
  • If that is the case just deploy ASP.NET application to your IIS. Azure Packaging is just a wrapper to your ASP.NET application so if you deploy your ASP.NET app to IIS that would be the same without having the benefit of Cloud functions.. – AvkashChauhan May 23 '12 at 21:44
  • but which application should i deploy? in Solution i have a cloud application, which contains the Service defintion file and the Service Configuration file. I have also a Web-Role as an ASP.NET application. this Web role has a SilverlightClient to a silverlight application added in the same solution. I tried to publish the web-role application but it generated a zip file which the iis didn't accept (or couldn't deal with it). I also tried to use the package generated by publishing the azure application but didn't work either. Now wat? – Asmaa Edress May 23 '12 at 22:06
  • I would suggest forget about Azure for a while. You just need to remember how to deploy any ASP.NET application to IIS and this is what you will do. Do you have an IIS server setup where you will deploy? This link should help: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd394698.aspx – AvkashChauhan May 23 '12 at 22:24
  • i followd the instructions. I had to replace the Azure Fabric cache DLLs with windows server AppFabric DLLs: *.cache.core.dll and *.cache.client.dll. then i bekame an error: Could not load file or assembly 'msshrtmi' or one of its dependencies. which i don't use in my application. i added this msshrtmi.dll as a refrence to my ASP.Net appication with allow Copy=true and i tried all solutions i found online but it didn't work. My development machine is x86 and the server is x64. – Asmaa Edress May 25 '12 at 15:25
  • I believe the task you have need some expert 1:1 time to discuss. It is very hard to communicate in these very small comment windows. Please open a Windows Azure Support Incident and you will get required assistance. – AvkashChauhan May 25 '12 at 15:31